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Elsa Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli was an innovative fashion designer. She introduced graphic knitwear with knit patterns and emblems. She also used fanciful prints of body parts, food, and many more unusual themes for her design.

She was the first to use brightly colored zippers. She was also the first to have them dyed to match the material used in her garments.

She was inspired from Dada and Surrealism. She did a Lobster Dress in white silk with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted by Dali onto the skirt.

Schiaparelli loved color. She loved unusual tints : Turquoise linen with grape velvet piping, purple and olive green combined with dark red. A simple black dress became dramatic with lime green coat or fire engine red stockings. Most famous was her “shocking pink” a bright magenta, not a new shade but a new name for this shocking colour. When she died, she was buried wearing an antique Chinese robe of purest shocking pink.

Naturally, her website uses ” shocking pink” ! Is n’t really a shocking color ! even on the monitor screen.

Also remember to check Brooklyn Museum coming exhibition, American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection’ May 7-Aug 1.